Kirstie Alley decorates Wichita house with festive movie set

Santa’s Village is back up at one of actress Kirstie Alley’s Wichita homes on East Douglas. But those who weren’t around in Wichita when she first put up the snowy scene in 2007 might not know the story behind it.

The village, a series of large panels painted with festive Christmas town scenes, was a memento Alley saved from the set of her 1993 movie “Look Who’s Talking Now.”

On Wednesday morning, Alley tweeted a picture of the village, and wrote, “I have a village to tend to today...final touches..makes everyone smile.”

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She first put it up nine years ago in the front yard of her wood-shingled house at 3725 E. Douglas, and she invited the Wichita Eagle over to her house to talk about it. The set, which is 120 feet long and 18 feet high at some points, hasn’t been put up for several years, though. Alley also owns the house next door at 3751 E. Douglas.

At the time, Alley said she remembered falling instantly in love with the Santa’s Village set, which is lighted and depicts an old-fashioned, snowy town scene. She took it with her when she lived in Maine, where it reflected beautifully on a pond near her house. She also put it up once at a home in Los Angeles, where she had it blasted with man-made snow to the delight of winter-deprived neighborhood children.

The set appeared in a scene from “Look Who’s Talking Now” where Alley, playing Mollie Ubriacco, loses her job and needs to earn extra money. She takes a job working as an elf for a surly mall Santa.

“I love Christmas,”Alley said during the interview in 2007. “For me, it starts at the end of October and goes through Valentine’s Day. That’s why I love that thing. I’ve drug it around all over the place.”